


Having a cup of tea with a memory

by flawsinthevoodoo



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Jaeger Pilots, Telling you who's in this would give it all away, Tumblr: jaegercon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-11
Updated: 2013-08-11
Packaged: 2017-12-23 03:55:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/921694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flawsinthevoodoo/pseuds/flawsinthevoodoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The old man had been coming to the cafe as long as it had been open, and Jenny still knew next to nothing about him. (Post-movie)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Having a cup of tea with a memory

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set about 12 to 15 years after the breach is closed. Be aware my timeline might not make sense with anything else, but it does work for the story so...oh well

       Jenny hums to herself as she opens up her shop. Getting a spot right on the memorial square after the War of the Kaiju had been a stroke of luck on her part and she was determined to make sure that she never needed any more luck in her life especially given the date. Twelve years ago the breach had been closed and the last of the Kaiju killed. This memorial day was a pleasant day, the sun was shining hot and bright through the scattered white wisps of clouds in the sky, glinting a brilliant yellow off of the bronze of the massive memorial statue out in the center of the stone courtyard. She took a moment to sit back and admire the youthful grin and cocky stance of the statue's form. The statue had not been the only one raised after the Breach had been sealed but it was certainly one of the biggest. She knew without looking any closer the words carved into the plaque at its feet. "This Memorial Square is dedicated in loving memory to one who stood on the breach between the world and its imminent destruction, bravely facing down the enemy of all mankind. For his contributions to the closing of the breach this square will be forever more the Charles Hansen Memorial Square" and found herself mouthing the phrase. The clatter of a chair drawn over cobblestones drew her attention away from her study of the statue.

       The man pulling out the chair was a familiar sight. Since the end of the war she had begun each morning's work to the sight of this same old man. She smiled fondly at his grumpy mutters as he folded his wizened frame into the chair. He looked had the look of a man who had once been very large and somehow shrunk, with his broad but stooped shoulders and massive but fragile hands which handled his cane as if it was somehow unfamiliar even after the eight years she had been working at the cafe. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as she bustled around the kitchen readying his habitual cup of tea which was as he said upon occasion with his queer Australian accent "the only bloody right cuppa in the entire place." He did not speak to her today he simply nodded to her pleasantly when she delivered his tea and returned to his contemplation of the huge statue , watching it and the people who went by with sharp grey eyes framed by wrinkles that told her he once might have laughed.

      When he had started coming here he had stood upright on his own without a cane , shoulders straighter, though his posture had lost none of its pride with the passing years. He had worn the PPCD uniform of some high ranking officer but the look on his face as he fingered the sleeves had stopped her from asking him about it during her habitual chatter. Now he dressed more casually in a well worn t-shirt and jeans but today he had brought with him a tan bomber jacket, fur-lined and looking well loved. She eyed it surreptitiously from across the room hoping for more hints about this man who had remained an enigma for so long. She spotted a patch on the sleeve frayed and faded as he picked up the jacket to take his lunchtime circuit of the square. The patches design seemed to remind her of something but she just couldn't place it and she forgot all about it by the time he came back from his walk.

      He was not alone when he returned. He brought a rather striking Japanese woman and an attractive blond man both many years his junior to sit at his table. Both of them looked familiar in that way that people you see a lot but don't really know do and jenny pondered who they might be as she took their orders. She pondered the statue once again, admiring the solid form of the hero, Chuck Hansen, once again, when her eye caught on the detailing of his left arm. She shot her gaze back to the jacket to confirm her suspicions. There in almost the exactly the same place rested a twin of the badge cast in bronze fifty feet above, the Striker Eureka logo. Suddenly she knew where she recognized his companions from and who he must be. She debated with herself whether it would be polite to ask them for their autographs, after all it wasn't every day that the last three Jaeger pilots in existence gather together in her shop. Watching as the old man laughed for the first time since she had seen him she scolded herself for even thinking about bothering them with her silly autograph book. She simply brought them their orders over the course of the day, watching affectionately as they gestured exuberantly and laughed uproariously and when they readied themselves to leave asking for their check she told them it had been settled.

They argued of course but she ignored their fuss with a gentle smile saying "A free meal is the least I can do for the Jaeger pilots who saved the world."

  
While they remained adamant that they would not take charity she could be just as stubborn and shooed them out of her cafe with a " Go home, I'll see you tomorrow, you can pay for your tea then if you want."

Herc never did pay for his tea again.


End file.
